Recruiting

[BigD]

Klemp (6-3, 215) chose Iowa ahead of scholarship offers from North Dakota State, South Dakota, Northern Iowa and others. He visited the Hawkeyes on multiple occasions in the fall.

Don't get pissed at me as I have a right to express my opinion just like everyone else, but later this year is Barta going to announce that we are dropping out of the B1G conference and playing division 1A football now? Yeah the kid could be great and just flew under the radar but shouldn't we be pulling recruits away from the teams in our conference? Again, the kid could end up playing in the NFL but at face value this doesn't look good.

Rob, in your article on Kaevon Merriweather's commitment you didn't report on offers he had been given. Do you have some information on that? Seems to me that if Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, or other top power five teams had pursued him you definitely would have mentioned that.

Longest tenure coach in college football, blah, blah. blah.

Yes I am still upset with Barta's extension for Fran and also having our conference divided in half in football and having to play for THIRD PLACE in the West Division.

 

[BVHawk95]

I'm actually not pleased with these pickups either (as far as I can tell, Merriweather doesn't have any recruiting profiles), but it's really no different than any other year under Ferentz. His classes almost always have guys like these sprinkled in at the end, with an oddly high success rate for them. Klemp was recruited by Reese Morgan, and bears a strange similarity to Jewell, which provides a silver lining.

At the end of the day though, these additions don't detract from the guys they already had, which I think is a pretty solid class. I think we still have a shot with McDonald, who announces Monday, and who knows who else they'll add before Wednesday. Could be they filled most of the needs by the first signing period, and are taking chances on projects because they can afford to.

 

[PCHawk]

I would guess most teams fill their scholarships with some scraps at the end. It's either that or bank the scholarships. Not much point in that.

 

[MoseSchrute]

His classes almost always have guys like these sprinkled in at the end, with an oddly high success rate for them.

Some hits, but with a lot of misses and wasted scholarships, too. Hope these guys help out eventually, but this is starting to feel pretty lackluster. I am forced to hear about the team across the river, and I can assure you they are not settling for 2star guys with no P5 offers and guys with Ferris State basketball offers. They are battling it out with P5 schools for 3 and 4star guys.

 

[BVHawk95]

Some hits, but with a lot of misses and wasted scholarships, too. Hope these guys help out eventually, but this is starting to feel pretty lackluster.

Your comment made me curious to see the actual success rate, so I went and did some research out of wanting to continue the discussion, and honestly, boredom. I looked at low 3-star and 2-star players over the past decade who committed close (1 week, give or take a few days) NSD that year, since that's the category Klemp and Merriweather fall into. All star ratings and commit dates come from Rivals, since 247 doesn't track commit dates on the team's full class page. I'm considering 5.5 as low 3 since that's the cutoff between 3 and 2 stars. After that, we'll split between successes, overachievers (serious playing time, but average or slightly above results), and busts (or guys who actually lived up to their low rating)

'17: Nixon, Stone, Wieland, Marchese, ISM

Too early to tell for these guys, but Stone and ISM are trending up, and Wieland and Marchese having redshirted and yet to contribute. Nixon is odd since he didn't make it to campus, and now that he is coming he's rated much higher, so we'll (statistically) throw him out for now.

'16: No one fit the criteria. Alaric Jackson was the only one to commit after November, and was a high 3-star.

'15: Graham, Wilson, Jansen, Ojemudia

Graham and Wilson gone, Jansen got more reps in the nascar package as the year wore on, so we'll say push, Ojemudia played quite a bit but wasn't quite there yet, so push as well. Garbutt was a 3-star who signed late, and he's gone as well.

'14: Oddly enough, again no one fit the criteria. Miles Taylor (a mid 3-star we stole from GT) was the last to commit.

'13: J. Parker, Anjeus Jones, Jewell, Wadley, King

First two transferred out, and I don't have to expand on the final 3, Definitely an anomaly of a class. King was just over a week before NSD, but I felt it was similar enough to include.

'12: Kittle, Reid Sealby, Nate Meier, Barkley Hill

Kittle and Meier, successes. Sealby I believe transferred out. Hill was on the track to serious playing time, then tore his ACL and transferred. Damn you he who shall not be named.

'11: M. Collins, Bullock, Lowdermilk, Canzeri, Lomax

Collins transferred I believe, Bullock and Lowdermilk weren't world-beaters but they played quite a bit, and Canzeri and Lomax I'd argue are definite successes.

'10: Just Tanner Miller.

Probably could argue this since he really wasn't all that good, but I'd say he beat his 5.1 rating, so overachiever.

'09: N MacMillan, Boffeli, Hyde, D. Getz, M. Murphy, S. Ngoumou

Boffeli switched to OL and was an okay reserve, MacMillan had potential but was never healthy, Hyde you know, and the rest were never heard from again. We'll call Hyde the only overachiever from this class. Definitely the normal rate for these types of guys imo.

'08: G. Castillo, S. Bigach, W. Lowe, C, McMillan

Nobody special here, no offense to them. I wasn't sure if ARob would fit here, as it has his commit date listed as May of 08 for some reason.

So, we have 34 guys who fit the prerequisites. 8, or roughly 24% (Hyde, Canzeri, Lomax, King, Jewell, Wadley, Meier, Kittle) were big time overachievers, who made some great plays for us in their time at Iowa. About a quarter of our "fallbacks". I'd say that is high, though I have no data to compare it to.

3 (Miller, Bullock and Lowdermilk) were solid but not stars. 16, or 48% never made an impact or left.

That leaves the 7 guys who are still early in their careers, with ISM and Geno Stone looking like overachievers thus far, Jansen and Ojemudia as slight overachievers, Wieland and Marchese as guys with no track record as of yet, and Nixon as the odd man out who got reevaluated as a higher rated prospect. Not great numbers, but again, I'd argue at least worth taking a chance on such guys, IF we can afford to. Looks like we can this year, though I agree that it shouldn't be the norm.

I apologize for the wall of text at 2 in the morning, but it piqued my interest, so I ran with it.

 

[HawkeyeTech]

I would call those excellent numbers. Over half of those after-thoughts became valuable or in some cases vital additions to the team. If you take out those whose careers were ended or affected by injury, the number gets higher. I might also include those who became backups and were on the two-deeps (I don't know how many that would add). Then the fact that there are three consensus All-Americans on the list tops the cake.

It would be interesting to see the success rate at comparable schools i.e Wisconsin, Minnesota et al with their after-thought recruits. (Not to suggest that anyone is going to do that )

 

[dahlhawk]

Watching the highlights on the Merriweather kid I was impressed by his tackling. He lined up at DE, linebacker, safety, just all over the place. Looks like the kid loves to hit. No highlights of his pass coverage so he might be a project there, but this kid will play special teams day one.

 

[HuckFinn]

Thanks for some very interesting stuff, BVHawk. You have a lot more patience than I do! I am a firm believer that one of the toughest jobs in recruiting for Iowa is the build up on the depth chart. I would guess that many of the walk on players are brought in for that purpose. The coaching staff knows full well that not all of them will pan out as stars. The other thing that Iowa does: They do not publicize some of the recruits they are chasing and I would bet they ask those recruits to remain quiet. Smart.

 

[clim3]

I think this years class is a very good one. We can afford to take a couple with upside at this point. I’m ok with it so far

 

[GesterHawk]

I think this years class is a very good one. We can afford to take a couple with upside at this point. I’m ok with it so far

I think we might be at the point of taking the best that are out there regardless of position.

It is kind of mind boggling when you really think about how they only have 85 scholarships to cover 22 positions and specialties. Walk ons are the heart and soul of the scout team. Getting the best walk ons makes practice that much better, even when 80% of them may never see the field.

 

[HawkGold]

Klemp (6-3, 215) chose Iowa ahead of scholarship offers from North Dakota State, South Dakota, Northern Iowa and others. He visited the Hawkeyes on multiple occasions in the fall.

Don't get pissed at me as I have a right to express my opinion just like everyone else, but later this year is Barta going to announce that we are dropping out of the B1G conference and playing division 1A football now? Yeah the kid could be great and just flew under the radar but shouldn't we be pulling recruits away from the teams in our conference? Again, the kid could end up playing in the NFL but at face value this doesn't look good.

Rob, in your article on Kaevon Merriweather's commitment you didn't report on offers he had been given. Do you have some information on that? Seems to me that if Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, or other top power five teams had pursued him you definitely would have mentioned that.

Longest tenure coach in college football, blah, blah. blah.

Yes I am still upset with Barta's extension for Fran and also having our conference divided in half in football and having to play for THIRD PLACE in the West Division.

Why is it OK for you to bitch and not others. Particularly those of us who saw this coming?